Needing You
by Roxie Zephyr Jocelyn
Summary: [WARNING: Spoilers for Episode 12 of Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist.] Dantalion needed Solomon. Solomon needed Dantalion. But really, they were both nothing more than replacements.


A/N: Spoilers for Episode 12 of the anime. Set in the anime universe and is non-compliant with the events in the manga. The fascinating characters of Makai Ouji do not belong to me, but to their creator. ENJOY~ xD

Needing You  


Dantalion used to think that there was no one he could love more than Solomon; that there was no one he would _need_ more than Solomon. The circumstances of their meeting, the manner in which they had bonded, they had both been two halves that were a perfect fit, filling in the gaps that nobody else had been able to fill.

As Solomon had so eloquently declared, they were more alike than Dantalion had realized; they were one and the same.

They had needed each other because they would never be what the other _wanted_.

_Unconditional love, acceptance, acknowledgement. Solomon could make all the contracts in the world, but the one person he desperately wanted would never hear his words, would never submit to him, would never accept him, would never love him._

Consummate love, acceptance, an escape from loneliness. Dantalion was the Grand Duke of Hell, with legions who would bow at his feet, who worshiped him in love and adoration, who would follow his every command, who would die should he will it, but when it came down to the line, the fight was his and his alone.

_In the end, they were both nothing more than replacements; for a person who no longer existed, for a person who had never existed. _

Everything had changed the moment Dantalion had been trapped, for the first time since he had become the Grand Duke, with a power that far surpassed his own by a person that had merely been human. He had wanted an escape from loneliness – Solomon had looked into his eyes, had pierced the numbness of Dantalion's existence with his words, had touched the demon in a way that no one else dared, that no one else could. He wanted acceptance – Dantalion wasn't the master in this relationship, Solomon was; he didn't have to be the all-powerful, invulnerable Grand Duke, he could just be Dantalion, a Nephilim whose shattered fragments of a human soul still yearned with wishes and desires that demons could not comprehend. Dantalion wanted consummate love – Solomon became the choice he had beyond battles, the meaning in an unending existence, the one who had stirred within him a love that was innocent affection, loyal friendship melded with intense passion and lust; someone he desired to simply be with for the rest of his life.

He had never been able to ask this of anyone because Dantalion was the untouchable Grand Duke of Hell; he had always fought alone.

_Solomon wanted acknowledgement – Dantalion was Solomon's first contract, the first one who had truly listened to Solomon's words and had seen Solomon when nobody else had. He wanted acceptance – Dantalion had accepted him, accepted his contract, accepted his eccentricities and his weaknesses, had actually reached out to him beyond their contract and become so much more. Solomon wanted unconditional love – Dantalion was the one he had known the longest, the one who had known him the longest, his most loyal, the one whom he could trust with everything and anything. _

_He had asked his father to love him, but his father had refused; their bond was one which had been broken by conditions, the conditions of circumstance._

Dantalion had accepted Solomon's contract because Solomon had touched Dantalion, had come close, closer than anyone else had, the only one to do so.

_Solomon had asked Dantalion to kill him because Dantalion would not, could not, refuse; because Dantalion's loyalty, Dantalion's love was unconditional._

_Dantalion would never be Solomon's father, but it was enough._

Solomon was strong, but he would never live for Dantalion, never be the one that Dantalion would spend his life with, but he had come close, closer than anyone else had, and that was enough.

_So, Solomon had died, his need dying with him. _

Still, when Dantalion had heard that Solomon's soul had been given life again, he had searched for the Elector, his need for Solomon as strong as ever.

But, rather than Solomon, he had found someone else: William Twining. The same soul, the same connection, but someone so very different.

William wasn't Solomon.

_Solomon no longer needed Dantalion; no longer needed a replacement for the person who once existed._

And, in finding Solomon again, Dantalion realized that it was William he couldn't bear to lose; the person whom he had been waiting for all this while, the person who had never existed, the person whom Solomon had been a replacement for.

The person who now had a name, who didn't understand him the way Solomon did, but who – despite his own protests – had accepted Dantalion nonetheless, who was the different to Dantalion in every way that Solomon was the same, but was no less precious, the bond between them just as strong and growing stronger.

William complemented Dantalion in the way that Solomon had completed him.

Which was why, despite the awakening of Lucifer, despite the fact that there was no longer a need for an Elector, Dantalion had made a trip to Earth. He hadn't expected William to be any different from the boy he met before, before the summoning, before their forced time together – his contract was with Solomon, he had nothing with William – and had only wanted to catch a glimpse of the blond realist for the final time before he returned to Hell permanently to resume his duties as the Grand Duke.

After all, they no longer had a need for each other, William no longer had a need for him; it was only expected that William wouldn't remember.

_Solomon had not remembered Dantalion despite having a contract with him._

_Solomon had forgotten Dantalion because the need was gone; he no longer needed to remember Dantalion, he no longer needed Dantalion.  
_

But, remembrance had seeped into brilliant green orbs, and William had called his name; wavering with uncertainty and hesitance, growing stronger, more confident as the fragmented shards of his memory began piecing themselves together again.

Dantalion was wrong.

Dantalion and William, they may not have had a contract, but they had something better; a genuine bond that had grown, not out of need, but out of the time they had spent together.

_He used to think that there was no one he could love more than Solomon._

William had remembered him.

_Here, in front of him, real, alive, was someone he could love, someone whom he already loved, more than his former master._

And, Dantalion had chosen William; because Solomon had been everything he needed.

But, William – not the vessel to Solomon's soul, not Solomon's descendent, not the Elector, just _William _– was everything he wanted.


End file.
